The Pecan Park Eagle

1957 Alpine Cowboys (L>R), Front Row: Pete Embry, Ray Van Cleef, Manager Tom Chandler, Sponsor Herbert L. Kokernot, Coach Chuck Ellis, Carl Warwick, and batboy, squatting, Daryl Mueller. Back Row: Toby Newton, Larry Click, Pete Swain, Nick Herrscher, Gaylord Perry, Butch McCollum, Jim Ward, Bob Bierderman, Ron Debilius, and Jerry Wolff.

Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas is like a baseball oasis in the vast range of lonesome doves, arid deserts, and almost always faraway stony mountains that make up the heart and soul of West Texas. Built in 1947 by rancher Herbert Kokernot, Jr. for 1.5 million dollars, it has been the home of of the constantly reincarnating semi-pro to independent league baseball club known as the Alpine Cowboys almost constantly in some form now for something like 68 years and counting. Now under the control of a group ownership, the fate of the Cowboys remains pretty much of a year to year thing, but there seems always to be a spiritual entity present that will not allow the club and what it represents to die.

Kokernot Field also serves as the home venue of the Sul Ross University Lobos collegiate baseball team as well.

Kokernot Field, Alpine, TX, 2002

Anyone who chooses to write a knowledgeable in-depth story of the Kokernot Field experience in one column on a Sunday morning would be kidding themselves and performing a disservice to readers, but anyone with genuine interest can get a good head start on their own. There’s a volume of information available over the Internet, probably starting with this link as well as any other:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_Cowboys

My son Neal and I visited Kokernot Field during the summer of 2002. Neal was considering Sul Ross for his choice of colleges at the time, so we drove out for a site visit at the end of his high school junior year. Kokernot Field was one thing we knew nothing about until we got there, but we were blown away to find this jewel of a park so far removed from our part of the so-called civilized world. It was old and a little used up and neglected by the time we saw it, but it wasn’t hard to imagine how things must have once been. The stadium’s gates and interior were loaded with little extra touches of decor like polished brass baseball plates on the doors, gates, and walls at critical points.

Kokernot Field, 2002.

Over time, I learned that Mr. Kokernot had brought some great ballplayers through his baseball window in Alpine. Players like Gaylord Perry and Norm Cash both played at Kokernot Field, as did greats like Satchel Paige and Ned Garver on a spring barnstorming tour.

Kokernot Field Grandstands, 2002.

Carl Warwick, later of of the Houston Colt .45’s, also played for the Alpine Cowboys in the summer of 1957. While he was there, future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry was a teammate. And also while he was there, Warwick reportedly hit the  longest home run in Kokernot Field history:

“TCU outfielder Carl Warwick, playing with the Alpine Cowboys this summer, recently blasted the longest home run in Kokernot Field history – some 430 feet.”

… Words and Musing by Charles Gillespie, Lubbock Morning Avalanche, June 19, 1957, Page 13.

Wish I could have found the actual game account of that monster shot, but I was unable to pin it down with my normally expansive digital news file account services. Still, Gillespie was a reputable writer from Lubbock. A 430 feet fly ball would probably have cleared most dead center field walls in the big leagues, although the brief event quote does not tell us where Warwick’s big hit left the field of play. Had it been hit to dead center at Minute Maid Park, the ball would still have been six feet shy of departure, but the center fielder would have been required to catch up with it at break-neck speed while running up Tal’s Hill.

Former Colt .45 Carl Warwick and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, 2013,

Perhaps, someone can remember to ask Carl Warwick about his distance record homer at the Colt .45’s discussion panel that will be conducted this coming summer at the 44th Annual Convention of SABR in Houston. Players rarely forget the details of their greatest hits and plays over time. Nor should they.

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Above is the title to the book that Mar Wernick sent me about the Alpine Cowboys. I would imagine it is available on Amazon.

Tags: Carl Warwick's Record HR at Kokernot Field

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